That’s another problem almost all of us have. We can’t separate the idea from the person. Because people didn’t like his views on “terrorism, the Iraq war, Mother Teresa, etc.” they rejected his statements on religion. Note that I’m not claiming that I’m able to do that because I don’t care what Rush Limbaugh, John Boehner, or Newt Gingrich say, I usually reject it out of hand. Even if I accept it, I try to figure out what ulterior motive they have for saying it.

Some people are like broken records (vinyl records would sometimes get a scratch in their surface so deep that it would cause the needle to move to a previous grove and so the music repeated the same frame ), repeating the same point that the audience just finished rejecting. The Christians are the worst at that, “Love Jesus”, “Jesus is truth”, “the Bible is God’s word”, “God bless America”, “under God”, “In God we trust”... uh well, no. It’s just too hard to listen to that vacuous repetition anymore.

I’ll bet Hitchens sad many immoderate ideas, so I’d disagree, but I doubt he was a broken record.

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bicycles: less mass, no fuel, lower speed, more beautiful, more quiet, lower cost, less wear-and-tear on the roads, more social because you can talk to people beside you, low-impact heart healthy exercise, easy parking… they are not perfect, but are they better than cars?.

After reading many online comments about Hitch’s death, it seems very clear there was a big divide among the freethinking world in regards to his standing; more than a few freethinkers are glad he is dead. His views on terrorism, the Iraq war, Mother Teresa ect. pissed a lot of progressive people off.

I don’t get that. There are many people I disagree with, but I don’t wish them dead (even that horrid Pat Robertson…I just wish people would laugh at him). I did not agree with his views on Iraq, but I understand where he is coming from, I just don’t agree with him. As for ‘mother’ Teresa, he was the first person I read, to mirror my opinion of her, and he did a much better job than I could. I have though her a sadistic media hound for years before ‘The Missionary Position’ was published.

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Church; where sheep congregate to worship a zombie on a stick that turns into a cracker on Sundays…

After reading many online comments about Hitch’s death, it seems very clear there was a big divide among the freethinking world in regards to his standing; more than a few freethinkers are glad he is dead. His views on terrorism, the Iraq war, Mother Teresa ect. pissed a lot of progressive people off.

I don’t get that. There are many people I disagree with, but I don’t wish them dead (even that horrid Pat Robertson…I just wish people would laugh at him). I did not agree with his views on Iraq, but I understand where he is coming from, I just don’t agree with him. As for ‘mother’ Teresa, he was the first person I read, to mirror my opinion of her, and he did a much better job than I could. I have though her a sadistic media hound for years before ‘The Missionary Position’ was published.

Me too. For some people, they just cannot abide others having free voice. It means they are always !00 % not only correct, but RIGHTEOUS.

Christopher Hitchens was a one-of-a-kind original. Years ago I gave him my entire window in my bookstore and he was fairly new to writing books. I met him in Virginia years ago when he did a book signing for the Secular Humanist group. He was a little drunk but there was nothing dulled about his wit. Many of us who kept correspondence with him knew he was terminally ill. His book on Orwell is a real gem. I miss him daily. I will often pick up one of his books to kill time and I always find something new that I had missed in a previous reading.

It’s sad to know he is gone. I was not a great admirer of Hitch until his battle with cancer, which he dealt with in an extraordinarily open and honest fashion. He was always a great writer and polemicist, of course.

Just out of curiosity, what did you dislike about him?

I found his polemics too often arrogant, nasty and unpleasant. Though as I say, very well-spoken and written. More of the clear-eyed humility came out at the end, and I found that easier to embrace.

My thoughts exactly.

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Free in Kentucky—Humanist
“I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.”—Edith Sitwell

I loved the guy. Mirror Reversal is dedicated to him with the line “may your ideas live on.” I was particularly sympathetic to his idea that humans are still in adolescent (animal) stages and will eventually mature to spiritual levels.

It’s my belief that organized religion has captivated and entranced the human intellect by retarding scientific development, especially in the latter 16th century when Copericism so convincingly disproved Biblical concepts.

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“A good and just God could never punish me for refusing to abandon reason.” Mirror Reversal